The Evening Wrap: Lok Sabha passes three revised criminal laws; two more Opposition MPs suspended

Two more Lok Sabha MPs, C. Thomas and A.M. Arif, were suspended from the Lower House for the remainder of the Winter Session on Wednesday for displaying placards in the House. The total number of MPs suspended this Session rises to 143. Meanwhile, the Lower House passed the three revised criminal Bills after a debate mainly comprising of BJP MPs. Union Electronics and Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw moved the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 for debate sans any Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was later passed via voice vote. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved in Rajya Sabha a Bill to amend the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Bill was passed. The Bill was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha. The Upper House also took up Question Hour, after witnessing five unscheduled adjournments as Opposition members demanded a statement on the Parliament security breach. The Lower House functioned for little under thirty minutes before Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House until 12 p.m. He also warned Opposition members to not raise placards. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected to introduce a motion in the Rajya Sabha calling for elections to the University of Delhi’s court. This will enable the House to choose a member from among its members to serve on the court, following the Chairman’s instructions. Lok Sabha security breach: Modi government has ‘strangulated’ democracy and shown ‘disdain’for Parliament, Sonia Gandhi tells Congress MPs The Narendra Modi government has “strangulated” democracy and the Prime Minister had shown his “disdain” for Parliament, Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi said on Wednesday, referring to the face-off between the Opposition and the government over the December 13 security breach in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi made these remarks while addressing her party colleagues from both the Houses of Parliament in the Central Hall of the old Parliament building. She said never had so many parliamentarians been suspended for a “legitimate demand” that the Home Minister should make a statement on the security breach in the Lok Sabha. The CPP chairperson claimed that it took four days for the Prime Minister to speak about the issue and that too outside Parliament. “By so doing, he [Modi] clearly indicated his disdain for the dignity of the House and his disregard for the people of our country. I leave it to you to imagine how the BJP would have responded had they been in Opposition today,” Gandhi said. Noting that the Parliament had passed some important Bills relating to Jammu & Kashmir, Gandhi said the Congress position was to press for restoration of Statehood, hold immediate elections and meet the aspirations of people Ladakh. Gandhi also accused the government of “distorting history and twisting facts” to defame patriots such as Jawaharlal Nehru. “In these efforts, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have taken the lead themselves, but we will not be intimidated or cowed down. We will persist in telling the truth,”she said. The former Congress chief also said that there is a “significant gap” between the Prime Minister’s boasts about economic growth and the ground reality. “Unemployment is soaring higher than in decades, and wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a select clique of industrialists. Prices of everyday commodities are skyrocketing. The poor are suffering,” she said. Gandhi also referred to the recent loss in the Assembly election in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and said that to say that it had been very disappointing was “an understatement”. “Our ideology and our values are our guiding light at this difficult time. We must never forget that our leaders fought against insurmountable odds, with great courage and fortitude, to give us our freedom,” she said, even as she congratulated colleagues from Telangana for winning in the State election. The former Congress chief once again reiterated the party’s position that the women’s reservation law must be implemented immediately and should cover women from the Other Backward Classes. She also targeted the BJP for weakening the co-existence of diverse religions, castes and ethnicities that make up the social fabric. PM, BJP want to establish ‘single party rule’ in country: Kharge on suspension of 141 MPs Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on December 20 charged that the Prime Minister and the BJP want to establish a “single party rule” in the country and the suspension of MPs from Parliament is for that. While 141 MPs have been suspended because they wanted a statement from the Home Minister on the grave security breach in Parliament, the BJP MP who facilitated the entry of the intruders remains scot-free and has not yet been questioned, the Congress leader said. “What sort of an investigation is this,” he asked in a statement posted on X. “Why haven’t senior officers responsible for Parliamentary security made accountable? Heads should have rolled by now,” he said. Kharge said apparently the intruders have been planning this for months and asked who is responsible for this massive intelligence failure. “Given the multi-layered security of Parliament, how did two intruders manage to hide yellow gas canisters in their shoes and enter the building and almost reach the sanctum sanctorum of India’s democracy,” the Congress chief wondered. “The Prime Minister and his party want to establish a ‘single party rule’ in the country. They talk of ‘Ek Akela’ which is akin to demolishing democracy. This is precisely what they have done by suspending Opposition MPs,” Kharge said in the post. “Instead of punishing the people in high ranks for this shameful security lapse, they have snatched away the democratic rights of MPs, thereby escaping accountability,” the Congress president said. The Congress and other opposition parties have been agitating against the suspension of their MPs and have been disrupting Parliament proceedings, demanding a statement from the home minister on the issue of security breach. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Is Biden’s Israel policy compromising the US’s strategic interests? As Israel continues its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, causing thousands of civilian deaths, it has continued to enjoy unconditional military and political backing from the United States. Last week, as the US vetoed yet another resolution at the UN calling for a ceasefire, it found itself almost completely isolated on the world stage. A few days ago, President Joe Biden said that Israel risks losing international support if it continued to bomb Gaza indiscriminately. Does this suggest the US is thinking of recalibrating its support? What has been the nature of the US’s historical backing of Israel? Is the Biden administration’s Middle-East policy venturing into uncharted territory? With the US launching a ten-nation force to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, is it at risk of getting dragged into a wider regional war? Ready to look into any information provided: PM Modi on U.S. charges over foiled Pannun assassination plot India’s commitment is to the rule of law and if someone gives information, it would look into it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Financial Times in his first comments on the U.S. allegations relating to an Indian link over a foiled plot targeting a Sikh separatist. In an interview to the British daily, Modi said there is strong bipartisan support for strengthening of India-U.S. relations and it is not appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic ties. “If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” Modi said, according to FT. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law,” he said. The U.S. federal prosecutors have charged that one Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. India has already constituted a probe committee to investigate allegations. In the interview, Modi said India was “deeply concerned about the activities of certain extremist groups based overseas”. “These elements, under the guise of freedom of expression, have engaged in intimidation and incited violence.” At the same time, Modi said, “There is strong bipartisan support for the strengthening of this relationship, which is a clear indicator of a mature and stable partnership. Security and counter-terrorism co-operation have been a key component of our partnership,” Modi said. “I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said. India-U.S. ties have been on an upswing in an array of areas, including defence, trade, investment, critical technology, energy and climate change. “We need to accept the fact that we are living in the era of multilateralism,” Modi said. “The world is interconnected as well as interdependent. This reality compels us to recognise that absolute agreement on all matters cannot be a prerequisite for collaboration,” he said. National Academy of Indian Railways told to hand over assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya The Ministry of Railways has directed the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara, to hand over all its assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), a Central university envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Railway Board on Monday said that keeping in view the significant progress made by GSV and to enable proper coordination and support from NAIR and other Central Training Institutes, it had been decided that all infrastructural facilities on the campus, including classrooms, faculty offices, laboratories, hostels, guest houses, auditoriums, security, sports facilities etc, would be placed with GSV. NAIR was told that in case it wanted to conduct any approved training programme, necessary permission should be obtained from the Vice-Chancellor of GSV. All future annual training calendar of NAIR and CTIs should be planned in consultation with GSV as the latter would have preference over the use of the facilities. Many serving and retired railway officers lament that it is curtains on the rich legacy of the Indian Railway’s decades-old apex training facility in Vadodara. Established in 1952, NAIR, erstwhile Railway StaffCollege, operates from the Pratap Vilas Palace in Vadodara over a 43.5-acre campus. It imparts foundation and induction training programmes for Group-A officers who qualify the Civil Services Examination and opt for a career in the railways. NAIR also provides foundation programme for Group-B officers and conducts refresher, skill upgradation and other mid-career training programmes for railway officers. NAIR is the training academy for railway officers similar to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for IAS officers and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy for IPS officers. “Depriving NAIR of its specialised infrastructure built over the years might impact the time-tested training protocols designed for railway officers. By taking over the assets of the premier training academy, the authorities concerned lost the opportunity of building from scratch a new world-class campus for GSV. Since it was inspired by the Prime Minister himself, there couldn’t have been any constraint of funds and resources and an institute equipped with modern laboratories and test rigs could have been built instead of this shortcut of sacrificing the Railway Staff College,” said Shubranshu, former General Manager of Rail Wheel Plant, Bela. He said probationary Group-A officers were now being sent to the Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management (IRITM), Lucknow, for their initial training. The railways have decided to deploy faculty from CTIs to GSV for teaching purposes. “Senior railway officers may have competency to teach on specialised subjects based on their experience. But they cannot be considered as qualified teaching faculty of GSV as there are certain eligibility criteria set by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council of Technical Education,” said Shubranshu, who was the architect of Train18, the first rake of Vande Bharat. Former Director-General of the Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad, S.K. Goel said the dismantling of NAIR could sabotage the entire system of imparting administrative training to railway officers. “NAIR has played a key role in professionally enriching railway officers from their entry into service till superannuation. I have undergone training at the academy on several occasions in my career spanning over 38 years to learn latest advancements in technology, management and global trends in rail transportation,” he said. GSV, a vision of Modi, is India’s first university focussed on transport-related education, multi-disciplinary research and training. The Central university under the Ministry of Railways was established to create a resource pool of best-in-class professionals for the railway transportation sector, GSV says on its website. Another senior railway officer Sanjay Chauhan, formerly Director-General, NAIR, said training of officers would continue in IRITM facility in Lucknow. “The training location has shifted from Vadodara to Lucknow. But the facilities in IRITM are not sufficient…they may have to build another NAIR there,” he said. Journalist bodies criticise freezing of NewsClick accounts by I-T Department Journalist bodies on December 20 criticised the freezing of the bank accounts of news portal NewsClick by the Income-Tax Department. In a joint statement, the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists, the Press Association, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists, and the Working News Cameraman’s Association objected to the action taken “without any warning”, which had in one stroke deprived close to a hundred media persons and their families of a steady source of income. “The salaries of all employees, including support staff, cannot be disbursed, including for the 19 days of work in December. This action by the I[-]T department also flouts basic norms of natural justice and labour laws. The portal has maintained that it has always complied with tax regulations and that there was no basis for the I[-]T department to freeze its accounts,” the statement said. The organisations said the development came on the heels of “sustained harassment in the form of ED [Enforcement Directorate] raids and I[-]T surveys in 2021 and the arrest of NewsClick’s founder Prabir Purkayastha and Administrative Officer Amit Chakraborty in October this year”. “Both, Purkayastha and Chakraborty, have been booked under draconian clauses. It has been observed that such arrests of media persons have become the norm rather than the exception. Both continue to be in judicial custody for an indefinite period of time,” they said, adding that another area of concern was the indiscriminate seizure of electronic equipment under the pretext of investigations. “While other independent media have also suffered such excesses with equipment being seized and confiscated for months altogether, in October, for the first time, electronic equipment like mobile phones and laptops of NewsClick journalists, ex-employees and even contributors was seized in an early morning operation which was unprecedented in itself,” the statement said. “Many, who are single earners, had to buy new equipment in order to continue working as there was no assurance of their seized equipment being returned in a definite time frame and that too in an untampered state. In addition, the ‘summoning’ and ‘questioning’ for days altogether of NewsClick staff and reporters on the pretext of investigation has been another mode of sustained harassment by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police,” it said. The organisations demanded that the “harassment of the media and media-persons in the form of raids, arrests under non-bailable draconian clauses, freezing of accounts without prior intimation and the seizure of electronic equipment sans any guidelines or parameters should stop forthwith”. “As such equipment is the lifeline for persons operating in the media space, such seizures effectively target livelihoods. Just as the other pillars of our democracy need to be allowed to function independently, so does the media. An independent media strengthens democracy; demoralising and stifling it will have the opposite effect,” they said. In Brief: Malaysia banned on December 20 Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking at its ports in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which it said ignores “basic humanitarian principles”. Ships on their way to Israel will also be barred from loading cargo at any port in the largely Muslim Southeast Asian nation “with immediate effect,” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement. PM Anwar singled out Israel’s biggest shipping firm ZIM. Malaysia “also decided to no longer accept ships using the Israeli flag to dock in the country” and ban “any ship on its way to Israel from loading cargo in Malaysian ports”. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 20 December 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Lok Sabha passes three revised criminal laws; two more Opposition MPs suspended [Two more Lok Sabha MPs, C. Thomas and A.M. Arif, were suspended from the Lower House for the remainder of the Winter Session]( on Wednesday for displaying placards in the House. The total number of MPs suspended this Session rises to 143. Meanwhile, the [Lower House passed the three revised criminal Bills]( after a debate mainly comprising of BJP MPs. Union Electronics and Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw moved the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 for debate sans any Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was later passed via voice vote. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved in Rajya Sabha a Bill to amend the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Bill was passed. The Bill was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha. The Upper House also took up Question Hour, after witnessing five unscheduled adjournments as Opposition members demanded a statement on the Parliament security breach. The Lower House functioned for little under thirty minutes before Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House until 12 p.m. He also warned Opposition members to not raise placards. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected to introduce a motion in the Rajya Sabha calling for elections to the University of Delhi’s court. This will enable the House to choose a member from among its members to serve on the court, following the Chairman’s instructions. Lok Sabha security breach: Modi government has ‘strangulated’ democracy and shown ‘disdain’for Parliament, Sonia Gandhi tells Congress MPs The [Narendra Modi government has “strangulated” democracy and the Prime Minister had shown his “disdain” for Parliament, Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi said]( on Wednesday, referring to the face-off between the Opposition and the government over the December 13 security breach in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi made these remarks while addressing her party colleagues from both the Houses of Parliament in the Central Hall of the old Parliament building. She said never had so many parliamentarians been suspended for a “legitimate demand” that the Home Minister should make a statement on the security breach in the Lok Sabha. The CPP chairperson claimed that it took four days for the Prime Minister to speak about the issue and that too outside Parliament. “By so doing, he [Modi] clearly indicated his disdain for the dignity of the House and his disregard for the people of our country. I leave it to you to imagine how the BJP would have responded had they been in Opposition today,” Gandhi said. Noting that the Parliament had passed some important Bills relating to Jammu & Kashmir, Gandhi said the Congress position was to press for restoration of Statehood, hold immediate elections and meet the aspirations of people Ladakh. Gandhi also accused the government of “distorting history and twisting facts” to defame patriots such as Jawaharlal Nehru. “In these efforts, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have taken the lead themselves, but we will not be intimidated or cowed down. We will persist in telling the truth,”she said. The former Congress chief also said that there is a “significant gap” between the Prime Minister’s boasts about economic growth and the ground reality. “Unemployment is soaring higher than in decades, and wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a select clique of industrialists. Prices of everyday commodities are skyrocketing. The poor are suffering,” she said. Gandhi also referred to the recent loss in the Assembly election in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and said that to say that it had been very disappointing was “an understatement”. “Our ideology and our values are our guiding light at this difficult time. We must never forget that our leaders fought against insurmountable odds, with great courage and fortitude, to give us our freedom,” she said, even as she congratulated colleagues from Telangana for winning in the State election. The former Congress chief once again reiterated the party’s position that the women’s reservation law must be implemented immediately and should cover women from the Other Backward Classes. She also targeted the BJP for weakening the co-existence of diverse religions, castes and ethnicities that make up the social fabric. PM, BJP want to establish ‘single party rule’ in country: Kharge on suspension of 141 MPs [Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on December 20 charged that the Prime Minister and the BJP want to establish a “single party rule” in the country and the suspension of MPs from Parliament is for that](. While 141 MPs have been suspended because they wanted a statement from the Home Minister on the grave security breach in Parliament, the BJP MP who facilitated the entry of the intruders remains scot-free and has not yet been questioned, the Congress leader said. “What sort of an investigation is this,” he asked in a statement posted on X. “Why haven’t senior officers responsible for Parliamentary security made accountable? Heads should have rolled by now,” he said. Kharge said apparently the intruders have been planning this for months and asked who is responsible for this massive intelligence failure. “Given the multi-layered security of Parliament, how did two intruders manage to hide yellow gas canisters in their shoes and enter the building and almost reach the sanctum sanctorum of India’s democracy,” the Congress chief wondered. “The Prime Minister and his party want to establish a ‘single party rule’ in the country. They talk of ‘Ek Akela’ which is akin to demolishing democracy. This is precisely what they have done by suspending Opposition MPs,” Kharge said in the post. “Instead of punishing the people in high ranks for this shameful security lapse, they have snatched away the democratic rights of MPs, thereby escaping accountability,” the Congress president said. The Congress and other opposition parties have been agitating against the suspension of their MPs and have been disrupting Parliament proceedings, demanding a statement from the home minister on the issue of security breach. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Is Biden’s Israel policy compromising the US’s strategic interests? [As Israel continues its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, causing thousands of civilian deaths, it has continued to enjoy unconditional military and political backing from the United States](. Last week, as the US vetoed yet another resolution at the UN calling for a ceasefire, it found itself almost completely isolated on the world stage. A few days ago, President Joe Biden said that Israel risks losing international support if it continued to bomb Gaza indiscriminately. Does this suggest the US is thinking of recalibrating its support? What has been the nature of the US’s historical backing of Israel? Is the Biden administration’s Middle-East policy venturing into uncharted territory? With the US launching a ten-nation force to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, is it at risk of getting dragged into a wider regional war? Ready to look into any information provided: PM Modi on U.S. charges over foiled Pannun assassination plot India’s commitment is to the rule of law and if someone gives information, it would look into it, [Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Financial Times in his first comments on the U.S. allegations relating to an Indian link over a foiled plot targeting a Sikh separatist](. In an interview to the British daily, Modi said there is strong bipartisan support for strengthening of India-U.S. relations and it is not appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic ties. “If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” Modi said, according to FT. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law,” he said. The U.S. federal prosecutors have charged that one Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. India has already constituted a probe committee to investigate allegations. In the interview, Modi said India was “deeply concerned about the activities of certain extremist groups based overseas”. “These elements, under the guise of freedom of expression, have engaged in intimidation and incited violence.” At the same time, Modi said, “There is strong bipartisan support for the strengthening of this relationship, which is a clear indicator of a mature and stable partnership. Security and counter-terrorism co-operation have been a key component of our partnership,” Modi said. “I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said. India-U.S. ties have been on an upswing in an array of areas, including defence, trade, investment, critical technology, energy and climate change. “We need to accept the fact that we are living in the era of multilateralism,” Modi said. “The world is interconnected as well as interdependent. This reality compels us to recognise that absolute agreement on all matters cannot be a prerequisite for collaboration,” he said. National Academy of Indian Railways told to hand over assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya [The Ministry of Railways has directed the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara, to hand over all its assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), a Central university envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.]( The Railway Board on Monday said that keeping in view the significant progress made by GSV and to enable proper coordination and support from NAIR and other Central Training Institutes, it had been decided that all infrastructural facilities on the campus, including classrooms, faculty offices, laboratories, hostels, guest houses, auditoriums, security, sports facilities etc, would be placed with GSV. NAIR was told that in case it wanted to conduct any approved training programme, necessary permission should be obtained from the Vice-Chancellor of GSV. All future annual training calendar of NAIR and CTIs should be planned in consultation with GSV as the latter would have preference over the use of the facilities. Many serving and retired railway officers lament that it is curtains on the rich legacy of the Indian Railway’s decades-old apex training facility in Vadodara. Established in 1952, NAIR, erstwhile Railway StaffCollege, operates from the Pratap Vilas Palace in Vadodara over a 43.5-acre campus. It imparts foundation and induction training programmes for Group-A officers who qualify the Civil Services Examination and opt for a career in the railways. NAIR also provides foundation programme for Group-B officers and conducts refresher, skill upgradation and other mid-career training programmes for railway officers. NAIR is the training academy for railway officers similar to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for IAS officers and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy for IPS officers. “Depriving NAIR of its specialised infrastructure built over the years might impact the time-tested training protocols designed for railway officers. By taking over the assets of the premier training academy, the authorities concerned lost the opportunity of building from scratch a new world-class campus for GSV. Since it was inspired by the Prime Minister himself, there couldn’t have been any constraint of funds and resources and an institute equipped with modern laboratories and test rigs could have been built instead of this shortcut of sacrificing the Railway Staff College,” said Shubranshu, former General Manager of Rail Wheel Plant, Bela. He said probationary Group-A officers were now being sent to the Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management (IRITM), Lucknow, for their initial training. The railways have decided to deploy faculty from CTIs to GSV for teaching purposes. “Senior railway officers may have competency to teach on specialised subjects based on their experience. But they cannot be considered as qualified teaching faculty of GSV as there are certain eligibility criteria set by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council of Technical Education,” said Shubranshu, who was the architect of Train18, the first rake of Vande Bharat. Former Director-General of the Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad, S.K. Goel said the dismantling of NAIR could sabotage the entire system of imparting administrative training to railway officers. “NAIR has played a key role in professionally enriching railway officers from their entry into service till superannuation. I have undergone training at the academy on several occasions in my career spanning over 38 years to learn latest advancements in technology, management and global trends in rail transportation,” he said. GSV, a vision of Modi, is India’s first university focussed on transport-related education, multi-disciplinary research and training. The Central university under the Ministry of Railways was established to create a resource pool of best-in-class professionals for the railway transportation sector, GSV says on its website. Another senior railway officer Sanjay Chauhan, formerly Director-General, NAIR, said training of officers would continue in IRITM facility in Lucknow. “The training location has shifted from Vadodara to Lucknow. But the facilities in IRITM are not sufficient…they may have to build another NAIR there,” he said. Journalist bodies criticise freezing of NewsClick accounts by I-T Department [Journalist bodies on December 20 criticised the freezing of the bank accounts of news portal NewsClick by the Income-Tax Department](. In a joint statement, the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists, the Press Association, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists, and the Working News Cameraman’s Association objected to the action taken “without any warning”, which had in one stroke deprived close to a hundred media persons and their families of a steady source of income. “The salaries of all employees, including support staff, cannot be disbursed, including for the 19 days of work in December. This action by the I[-]T department also flouts basic norms of natural justice and labour laws. The portal has maintained that it has always complied with tax regulations and that there was no basis for the I[-]T department to freeze its accounts,” the statement said. The organisations said the development came on the heels of “sustained harassment in the form of ED [Enforcement Directorate] raids and I[-]T surveys in 2021 and the arrest of NewsClick’s founder Prabir Purkayastha and Administrative Officer Amit Chakraborty in October this year”. “Both, Purkayastha and Chakraborty, have been booked under draconian clauses. It has been observed that such arrests of media persons have become the norm rather than the exception. Both continue to be in judicial custody for an indefinite period of time,” they said, adding that another area of concern was the indiscriminate seizure of electronic equipment under the pretext of investigations. “While other independent media have also suffered such excesses with equipment being seized and confiscated for months altogether, in October, for the first time, electronic equipment like mobile phones and laptops of NewsClick journalists, ex-employees and even contributors was seized in an early morning operation which was unprecedented in itself,” the statement said. “Many, who are single earners, had to buy new equipment in order to continue working as there was no assurance of their seized equipment being returned in a definite time frame and that too in an untampered state. In addition, the ‘summoning’ and ‘questioning’ for days altogether of NewsClick staff and reporters on the pretext of investigation has been another mode of sustained harassment by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police,” it said. The organisations demanded that the “harassment of the media and media-persons in the form of raids, arrests under non-bailable draconian clauses, freezing of accounts without prior intimation and the seizure of electronic equipment sans any guidelines or parameters should stop forthwith”. “As such equipment is the lifeline for persons operating in the media space, such seizures effectively target livelihoods. Just as the other pillars of our democracy need to be allowed to function independently, so does the media. An independent media strengthens democracy; demoralising and stifling it will have the opposite effect,” they said. In Brief: [Malaysia banned on December 20 Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking at its ports in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza]( which it said ignores “basic humanitarian principles”. Ships on their way to Israel will also be barred from loading cargo at any port in the largely Muslim Southeast Asian nation “with immediate effect,” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement. PM Anwar singled out Israel’s biggest shipping firm ZIM. Malaysia “also decided to no longer accept ships using the Israeli flag to dock in the country” and ban “any ship on its way to Israel from loading cargo in Malaysian ports”. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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